17. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
Jackson
F our years I’ve known Lisette . In all that time, I barely interacted with her, we simply had nothing to talk about and no real reason to cross paths, but now she’s in my car and I want to risk everything. I want to ruin Easter and the Tooth Fairy and every other special thing her brother is going to spoil for my kid in retaliation for touching her.
“Isabelle.” I put the car in park before turning to her and desperately trying to get my mind off of the woman in the seat next to me. “When we get in there, please do not ask me for a pet pig. We’re not getting one.” I warn her before we even see them because two years ago, she threw a very big fit in front of everyone. I gave her the same warning last year and she was pretty good, but she was asking about the pigs before we left the house today.
She swings her feet back and forth as she smiles at me. “How about we negotiate ?”
A smile grows on my face although I try to fight it.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Lisette starts and I silently curse myself. “How about Isabelle gets a pig and Daddy can get something he wants?” She turns to me, and when I see that smile, I know I’m in trouble.
“What do you want?” She keeps her voice low and it’s as if all the air is sucked out of the car.
“Stop it,” I warn her.
She holds my gaze before her eyes cut down to my lips. “Stop what?”
“Stop looking at me like that. Stop .” I whisper my last word more sternly before forcing myself to look at my daughter. “It’s either a pig or a candy apple.”
“What?” Her brows shoot up to her hairline as she stares back at me. “That’s a hard choice.”
“This is us negotiating.”
“No, it’s not,” Lisette cuts in. “This is an ultimatum. Don’t trick her.”
“Are you tricking me?” Isabelle raises one brow and I can’t even take this seriously.
“You know what? I’m the boss and what I say goes. No pig.” I climb out of the car before either of the girls can disagree.
I’m really starting to regret letting Lisette tag along and not because I suddenly want to kiss her, but because I’m afraid I’m going to have to deal with a tantrum over a damn farm animal before I leave this fair.
My windows are tinted, so I can’t see the girls talking, but when I open Isabelle’s door and see her innocent smile, it’s clear they were discussing something.
“Are we ready?” I help her out of her car seat as she glances at Lisette and giggles.
“Yup.” She climbs out of the car with my help and as I turn to get the door for Lisette, she opens it herself.
She smiles over at Belle before holding her hand out to her and the pair walk ahead of me. I take them in and you would’ve thought our outfits were planned with the way Lisette coincidentally matched our western boots and black shirts.
I pay for all of us when we get to the front and they hand us each a basket.
“We should pick apples last so we don’t have to carry the heavy basket all day.”
Lisette agrees and Isabelle pulls her hand to the table of people bobbing for apples.
“Lissy, you go and I’ll record.” Belle pulls my phone out of my pocket before turning the camera on.
Lisette looks between the people at the table and I give her a push. “Go ahead.”
It’s clear she doesn’t want to but after pinning my kid against me, I’m giving her a hard time.
She rolls her eyes at me before flipping me off. I step in Isabelle’s line of sight before she can see. I keep my eyes on her as she lines up with the two other people and the old man at the front explains the rules to them.
Everyone puts their hands behind their back when he tells them to, but, of course, Lisette keeps her hands on the table.
I shake my head as I take a step behind her and lean into her ear. “Cheater.”
“Shut up.”
I let out a low chuckle before glancing over at Belle. When I notice she’s recording the cotton candy machine, I turn back to Lisette. Taking both her hands in one of mine, I hold them behind her back.
She glances over her shoulder at me, her eyes focused on my lips and there my heart goes again, speeding up.
“You didn’t say anything in the car earlier.” She leans back, pushing her ass to my dick. I suck in a breath of surprise, but neither of us move.
“What do you want?”
I look between her eyes as they trail down to my lips. “What do you want?”
A smirk grows on her face. “I asked first, JJ.”
My breathing gets heavier as I become more aware of every inch of her pressed against me. My eyes cast down her frame, and with the way she’s angled, I can see into her shirt. Her pink lacy bra changes the entire meaning of the color for me.
“Say it,” she taunts.
Before I can admit I want her, someone blows a whistle and the two people beside us dunk their heads in the water.
I give Lisette a push and she follows suit, bobbing for the apples, but as she bends over, she pushes against me harder. A low grunt escapes me, but I don’t move and she doesn’t try hard not to rub against me.
One of the contestants finishes and when Lisette notices, she shakes her face of the water, a tired breath escaping her.
“You’re not going to finish?” I almost call her a sore loser, but she leans her back to my front before looking up at me with those damn eyes.
“I’ll finish another time.”
My cock twitches at her words, and when she glances down, I know she felt it. I quickly unhand her and take a necessary step away. Just as I do, Isabelle tilts the camera to the red and orange trees above us before turning to us.
“Oh, did you win?”
“She gave up like a sore loser,” I answer for Lisette, and when I turn to look at her, she’s drying her face with a towel someone hands her.
My eyes follow the water dripping into the front of her button-up shirt and I swallow the dryness in my throat at the sight of a bit of cleavage showing. Her pink bra is on the front of my mind. She has the bottom of her button-up tied and my mind runs wild at the bit of skin showing.
Fuck.
I can not be thinking about half the things running through my mind regarding this girl. My eyes don’t hear those thoughts as they scan down the rest of her frame. I take in the way her shorts hug her waist, but then my eyes land on her thighs and I notice the scars on both of them.
Her jokes about being depressed ring in my mind, but that clearly isn’t a joke.
My eyes meet hers and she’s already watching me, catching me staring.
“Sorry,” I shake my head at myself, feeling like an asshole for being one of those people who stare at someone’s scars.
“That was a horrible apology.” She pouts and I know she’s joking, but I also know she’s just hiding behind her humor. “You should find a better way to say sorry.” She gives me a once over but I don’t entertain her flirty comment.
“If you ever need a reason to get out of bed, you always have one with us.”
She meets my eyes, her smile slowly fading. I nod once, silently telling her I mean it.
She opens her mouth, but I stop her from making a joke. “Don’t,” is all I say before taking her hand and dragging Isabelle over to hold her. “Come on.” I guide them forward and Lisette doesn’t say anything as she walks ahead, holding hands with my daughter.
I watch them as Isabelle records the fair and occasionally me and Lisette. My phone starts ringing, but she ignores it as she takes a picture of the biggest apple tree on the field. When someone calls again, she lets her head fall to the sky with a sigh and answers, but I snatch the phone from her before her smartass can say something.
“Daddy, tell them you’re not working.” She rolls her eyes and instead of reprimanding her for the attitude, I try my hardest to be understanding. I told her I won’t work today, but I’ve been getting calls all day and she knows it’s work.
When I look down at my phone, I realize the last one was my mom, but I don’t answer, knowing exactly why she’s calling. “They won’t call again.” I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and hand it back to her.
“This girl just won’t back off, huh?” Lisette teases.
I shake my head of my thoughts but decide to rant. “One of my clients is my living nightmare. He just got into a really bad fight and the other guy, who’s my other client, is now in the hospital. He’s making my life hell. His offers are being pulled from under him left and right, and if I don’t clean his image and secure him on a team, I’m going to be losing a lot of money.”
Lisette’s brows raise but she understandably doesn’t look all that interested. “I’m sure you won’t go broke. Worst case scenario, sell your castle or one of your cars.” She shrugs and a laugh escapes me.
“I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but this is my job and—”
“Hey, I was kidding.” She shrugs again, turning more serious. “He sounds like a pain, but I’m guessing you don’t have him saved as ma in your phone.” She gives me a knowing look and I feel my shoulders sag.
I glance down at Belle and decide this isn’t a conversation she needs to be a part of. When we reach the tree house, I ask Belle if she wants to go play in it, which she does.
I keep a close eye on her, but when she’s out of earshot, I turn to Lisette. “Rome was who I was texting in the car and he’s been calling me all day, my mom is a whole other story.”
She raises her brows. “Does everyone have mommy issues or is that what I attract?”
“I have a great relationship with my mom,” I clarify. “The last few days, she’s been bugging me about Isabelle’s mom. She wants me to talk to Belle about her, but I don’t want to and I know I’m being selfish, but it’s hard for everyone. I feel like shit and I really don’t want to talk about it.”
I watch for Lisette’s reaction, but she simply nods slowly as she thankfully changes the topic.
“I guess this week is just a feel like shit week for everyone.”
I keep my gaze on her as she settles onto the bench beside us.
“I did something really really stupid this week.” She shakes her head at herself, her tone in complete despair.
I settle beside her before shoving her with my shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it or sit in silence?”
She glances over at me before looking over at the tree house in thought. “You know Sire and I are adopted, yeah?”
“Mhm.” I hum in response as I lean back on the bench.
“My sister recently reached out to me, and every time she talks about our bio mom, I actually want to jump off of a roof, especially when she talks about how good she is. I didn’t have that good mom she had, and I hate myself for being jealous, but I think I am. She just made me feel so unworthy of love and I hate her so much.”
Her shoulders sag as if a weight was physically taken off of her.
When she looks over at me, all I can see is how broken she feels and I do the only thing I know how to make someone feel better. I hug her.
She goes still, but as I hold her tighter, her tensed shoulders slowly ease.
“I think you’re very worthy of love.”
She doesn’t say anything as she pulls away. “Rome is the client you were telling Sire about, yeah?” She changes the topic and I let her.
“Yeah.”
She nods in thought as she faces forward.
“To clean his image, why don’t you make him do some sort of charity event or something with kids? It can be a long-going thing so the public doesn’t think it’s to cover up everything going on. People love kids.”
“You love kids,” I correct her and she takes a beat to look back at the tree house.
“I love your kid,” she corrects me, and hearing her words does something to me because my one rule was to not get involved with the women in my daughter’s life, but hearing she loves Belle makes me want to break that rule.